Motherwell badminton ace Alex Dunn has been tipped by his coaches to become a Scottish champion in the future.

Lanarkshire Lightning coaches Jamie Neill and Keith Turnbull believe the 14-year-old is one of the best they have ever seen, but are wary of him becoming complacent.

Jamie (29), from Hamilton, said: “Alex won the singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the Under-15 British Championships, and was defending the singles title that he won last year.

“He also won a treble at the Scottish Championships, and two weekends ago, for the first year, Glasgow City Council ran the Glasgow Youth International for Under-15, and he won the treble as well.

“Alex is dominating his age group in the UK, and there were players from Denmark and Belgium at the Glasgow event as well.

“He has reached the final of the Glasgow Under-19 Championships as well.

“At his own age he’s almost finding it too easy, which is excellent, but we also need to be careful that he doesn’t get too complacent about it.

“He has to push himself by playing against older age groups.

“Playing in England at under-17 level, and in senior events, will really test him.

“He’s got the physical ability and strength to do it, and will give a lot of senior players a run for their money.”

Keith (30), from Larkhall, said: “Alex plays for our senior county team, and at 14 he must be the youngest player in history to do so. He has played for the Lanarkshire seniors as well, which is amazing for his development and experience.

“He’s as good as anybody I’ve seen at that age, and he’s better than I was at that age.

“He recently beat an Under-19 player in here who is ranked number three. He said Alex is the best he has ever seen – and he’s 14.

“He’s definitely a future Scottish champion, and probably at a really young age as well.”

Jamie is keen to encourage Alex and improve on his already impressive talent, but is also wary of him becoming disillusioned with the sport as the task becomes more difficult.

He said: “Alex needs to keep progressing, but needs to have some short-term goals, things he wants to achieve, and maybe playing some Under-19 events for Scotland, even though he’s a couple of years young, is a target

“He also wants to have long-term goals, like trying to get into the senior national squad.

“It’s not that it’s worrying or negative, but a lot of juniors mature early and have a lot of success early, but maybe don’t progress until their late teens.

“It can also go one of two ways when they come up against better players; some work hard at it to improve, but others think they’re not good enough and just give up. We want Alex go grab this opportunity with both hands, because of his ability and his potential.

“BADMINTONscotland recognise that potential as well, which is a good thing because everybody has supported him.

“He has been given opportunities, as part of their funded squad, to travel around Europe, and they rate him quite highly.”